Advertisement
Published: August 18th 2019
Edit Blog Post
Day 1 of the Pennine Way beats quite a few walkers, we may have met one of them. It’s a difficult and long day. Any day with a section named Jacob’s Ladder is going to be tough. If it was called Jacob’s Incline even that would give walkers some hope without being misled. I’m waiting for sections with names like Rob’s Gentle Meander or Julie’s Easy Decreases in Elevation. I’m waiting but not expecting.
It blew incessantly today and we were lucky it only rained briefly as it could have been bitter. We both walked in shorts (not the same pair) and for a while in t-shirts but the wind got the better of us. I didn’t stop blowing until we managed to get off the high plains. The plain is named Bleaklow and you don’t need to be Einstein to work out why expect it‘s not low! Sure it’s not the highest point but it’s close. But it is bleak, very bleak. All peat, all bog yet still alright.
We leap frogged (not literally, give me some poetic licence) the Rob and Leslie couple I mentioned all day today. We walk faster but also take regular and longer
breaks. We just met them in the pub we were in and managed to get a ride back to our accommodation with them. It took abut a millisecond to respond with a definite ‘yes’ to do you want a lift. Lovely little pub in a quaint village but it had no longer cider on tap and even stranger it had no local beers. All the lagers they had were from Germany, Holland, Italy and Australia. What’s happening here?
Crossing the moors was made significantly easier as the National Parks Service has laid thousands of flagstones to stop you literally (no poetic licence here) sinking into the peaty bogs. They are easy to walk over and certainly compensate for some of tough conditions we encountered elsewhere.
The last 6km or so are very rocky and very tough on knees and feet and having already traversed 25km or so it wasn’t easy. Many walkers find the down hill tougher, I’m not sure Julie does as she walks downhill faster than I do.
Tomorrow’s walk starts off with a significant uphill, rocky section a little break and then another uphill rocky section so expect some grumbles about tomorrow’s walk as
well. It finishes with a more pleasant and slightly easier section so tomorrow we may feel a bit more human and not be thinking of bed at 7 o‘o’clock.
Just ordered our packed lunch for tomorrow so we can expect the box drink, couple of rounds of sandwiches, some obscure brand of chocolate bar and of course the ubiquitous packet of crisps. But it’s lovely to sit somewhere and devour lunch because it’s good and because you’re hungry and because the vistas are stunning. It was busy today because it‘s Sunday and because this section is pretty popular so it will be interesting to see if the track is busy tomorrow.
Anyway see you tomorrow.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.055s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 14; qc: 25; dbt: 0.031s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Lee
non-member comment
Lee Farm
Looking good!! What did they farm at my farm?!? I'm enjoying the blog so far!!!! xx